KAMPALA — A Ugandan minister on Friday opposed a bill which could see homosexuals punished with death, throwing doubt over the legislation which has drawn widespread international condemnation.
Investment Minister Aston Kajara said the country already had sufficient legislation against homosexuality and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was not needed.
"The government's position is that the existing provisions in our penal code against homosexuality are strong enough and that this new bill is not necessary," Kajara told AFP.
"The penal code already sufficiently covers this issue."
But Ethics Minister James Nsaba Buturo, a staunch supporter of the bill who has in the past said "homosexuals can forget about human rights," dismissed Kajara as not representing the government on the issue.
The bill, already before parliament, would impose the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," applicable in cases of rape of a minor by a person of the same sex, or where one partner is HIV positive.
It would also criminalise public discussion of homosexuality and could penalise an individual who knowingly rented property to a homosexual.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, punishable by life imprisonment in some instances and is an offence of "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" under the penal code.
Widespread condemnation by rights groups and western nations have been heaped on the legislation.
The United States and the European Union have called on Kampala to scrap the bill, criticising is as a setback to human rights.
The bill's sponsor, David Bahati, said consultations were ongoing over the draft law.
"Every single day we are in consultation with different stakeholders. At the moment it is premature to say whether the bill will be adjusted or won't be adjusted," he told AFP.
But Angelo Izama, an analyst with Kampala-based think-tank Fanaka Kwa Wote, said a watered-down version of the bill may be adopted.
"I suspect that if it comes for discussion it will be a greatly watered down version, where the death penalty will be removed. That seems to have been the early consensus," he wotld AFP.
Last month, Buturo said concerns over the death penalty could force changes.
"That?s one of the issues that has concerned not only our friends, but some Ugandans," he told reporters. "May be parliament should consider life sentence as opposed to death penalty."
Izama said the bill has damaged President Yoweri Museveni government's image "as the accusation in the 70s that Idi Amin kept the skull of his enemies in the fridge," referring to Ugandan dictator's ruthless 1971-1979 rule.
But Buturo also last month stressed Uganda's sovereignty.
"Nobody, nobody, nobody has the right to think for Ugandans. Nobody has the right to impose their values on a sovereign state," he said.
Okello Oryem, a junior foreign minister, said on Friday that Uganda would not bow to external pressure.
"We are not going to accept intimidation from anybody. If any country who claims to be one of Uganda's friends threatens to withdraw aid we will tell them they can keep their aid," he told AFP.
"The time of threatening to give aid or not give aid is over."
Other observers said that Uganda has failed to acknowledge the diplomatic repercussions of the legislation.
"I think generally there has been a serious failure to appreciate the foreign policy implications of this bill," said Busingye Kabumba, a law lecturer at Kampala's Makerere University.
"In Uganda we have a semblance of democracy, not a full democracy. So all sorts of ministers can shout about how foreigners should stay out of Uganda's business.
"At the end of the day everyone knows it all comes down to one man, the president."
